Christmas Dance

padfoot_puppyeyes

Rating: PG
Genres: Romance
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 5
Published: 22/12/2003
Last Updated: 22/12/2003
Status: completed

Hermoine, being the smart witch she is, invents a potion that enables two people to switch minds for one hour. All she needed to do was test it... and Ginny agreed. After all, Hermione reasoned, it was only an hour! What could happen in an hour?... it's in Hermoine's view, and 1st person. It's a little dificult to follow, because half the time Hermione is Ginny, but please read and give honest reviews! it's my first h/h fanfic, and all reviews are appreciated!!

Chapters

1. Christmas Dance

1. Christmas Dance

A.N.- I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the book's characters, I'm just working on J.K. Rowling's brilliant mind. Also, I'm still working on Depression, but this is a h/h one-shot, and pure fluff. I got the idea while watching Freaky Friday, so I don't own any of the ideas of switching places either! Please don't sue me! Merry Christmas!

It was Christmas Eve, and I knew it. So how had I ended up here, in the seventh year Gryffindor girl's dormitory, working on potions homework while my friends waged a gentler war, of snow instead of magic, outside? I'd been injured in the real war, the magical one, that is, last week by a Death Eater, and had been forced to miss a week's worth of classes. Being Head Girl and in my seventh year, I was struggling with the last of my homework and the un-wrapped presents on my bedroom floor.

“ Hermione! Where were you?” Ginny called up the dormitory stairs as she stripped off her wet coats and took off her hat and scarf. In the last year we'd gotten much closer, and she and Neville had somehow almost become members of “the trio”. Even Luna Lovegood, who was dating Ron, had started becoming somewhat tolerable, and through all of the trials of the last year, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and I had become inseparable.

“ Sorry, Gin, you're on your own for this one. I still have a boatload of homework from last week, and I want it all out of the way before Christmas” I replied stubbornly, still working on my potions homework.

“ That is NOT homework!” Ginny replied just as stubbornly, and I almost gave in and put on my coat. Only my common sense held me to my spot on the floor.

“ You're right, it's extra credit, only I'm not sure it will work. If it does, it will enable the Order to trade places with anyone, including a Death Eater, for an hour!” I beamed at my disgusting accomplishment, and the green ooze bubbled and gurgled back at me, while Ginny stared at me as though I'd grown an extra head.

“ You've invented that… stuff?” Ginny asked, staring at the smelly mess in the caldron. I simply smiled.

“ That “stuff”, as you called it, could one day save a life.”

“ It could just as quickly end one.” Ginny shot back at me, and then just as quickly covered her mouth. I could only laugh at the look on her face. Everyone knew I had been on edge lately, because of my injury, but I was finally out of the hospital wing, and my potion was complete. Plus it was Christmas Eve, and I was in the holiday spirit.

“ If it works, it really could be useful in the war! All I have to do now is test it…” I finished with and evil look at Ginny, who instantly began to protest.

“ Hermione, you are breaking at least a dozen school rules!” Ginny stated boldly.

I beamed at her and replied, “it's a good thing I'm Head Girl, then! Besides, Gin, it's only an hour! What could happen in an hour? We'd be done in time for the Christmas dance, and we'd still have time to spare!” I began pleading with her. After a moment's hesitation, Ginny smiled back at me.

“ You're right, Hermione. What could happen in an hour?” Ginny replied. Soon enough I would find out just how much could happen in an hour, and a little more than I bargained for.

“Hermione, are you in there somewhere?” Harry asked me an hour later, while decorating the Great Hall. It was my responsibility, as Head Girl, to decorate, but I had dragged Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville in on my project.

“Yeah, just looking forward to the dance tonight.” I replied, and smiled brightly at Ginny, who smiled back. We both knew I was looking forward to what would happen exactly two hours before the dance. This was the second year holding it, and hours before Ginny had agreed I'd been complaining about having the dance on Christmas Eve, so I could understand the confusion in Ron and Harry's stares. Dumbledore insisted we needed something to lift our spirits during the war, and it had been Professor Tonks's idea to hold the dance on Christmas last year. I, however, had gone with Ron to the last dance, and that was where he had ended up dumping me. Though we had long since become friends again, the dance brought back embarrassing memories, and everyone but Ginny seemed surprised when I made the announcement of how much I was looking forward to it.

“ Oh.” Harry replied stupidly. Ginny only smiled as she levitated large origami ornaments onto the frosted Christmas tree standing in the middle of the room, and I helped Ron and Neville hang a banner over the entrance to the Great Hall. Checking my watch, I sent an anxious glance at Ginny, and she made her way over to me and left to “get ready for the dance” two hours early. I followed her shortly, explaining that for girls these things took a little longer.

“ You ready?” Ginny asked, a wicked smile playing on her lips. I nodded, a knot gathering in my throat. Ginny gave me a reassuring smile and a strand of her hair, just as I had told her to, and I gave her a lock of mine. We dropped them into the bubbling mess, and watched the green ooze devour our friend's hair. Then, after a moment of thinking, I pinched my nose, and forced the slimy concoction down my throat.

The change was painful, and nerve wracking. I only wanted to know if my invention worked, and found when my vision cleared and the tears went way, my potion had indeed worked. I was seeing the world through Ginny's eyes, and I could tell, she was seeing through mine. I heard her thoughts quite clearly in my mind, and while I was still myself, it was like I had a split personality. One part of my mind was mine, but the other was Ginny's.

“ It worked!” Ginny said in awe, looking at her hands, only seeing them as my hands. I couldn't stop the wide grin from breaking out on Ginny's face.

“ Yeah, I guess so!” I replied, still impressed with my own abilities in potion making. Just them I heard the portrait door swinging open, and Ron's voice echoed up the stairs.

“ Ginny, I hope your not going with anyone!” Ron yelled up in his big brother voice. I watched my face grimace and felt instant pity for Ginny. Ron had stopped being so protective of me after we had broken up. Ginny would have to put up with his loving protection for the rest of her life. Instead of firing back a retort, I held my tongue and replied

“ Well, if your going with Luna I have every right to go with someone!” as indignantly as I could. “I'm in the same year as her, and I could go with anyone I wanted to!” Ron only snorted in response, but I could tell I had annoyed him. It was Harry's voice that asked what I had been sure Ron would have asked a long time ago, had we not broken up.

“ Well, are you going with anyone, Hermione?” He asked, much to my surprise. Ginny, or rather, I stood up, and in common sense I followed. Ron frowned when he saw us.

“ Hey, I thought you two said you were getting ready.” Ron said, noticing that we hadn't changed a bit.

“ We would if you'd give us time to.” I watched Ginny reply hotly, her voice matching my own. I smiled at her, and she smiled right back.

Harry, though noticing this, ignored the silent exchange and said, “ Ginny, can I talk to you?” Once Ron had pulled Ginny, who was in my body, into another difficult conversation about who knew what. Wondering whether I should talk to him, or if this was something I shouldn't be hearing, I sent a silent question to Ginny, but she replied with a wink and brought her attention back to Ron. Figuring she could always use a memory charm if it was something I really shouldn't know, I followed Harry to the chairs by the fire.

Harry cast a nervous glance at my body, with Ginny in it, who was clearly enjoying fighting with Ron and said, “ She never answered my question. Does that mean she's going with someone else?” I noticed he had a desperate look on his face, and even though I had no idea why he worried who I went to the dance with, I comforted him as best as I could without giving the secret away. That I was really Ginny, that is.

“No, actually she's thinking about avoiding the dance, she still doesn't have a date. Why?” I asked, barely able to contain my curiosity. Harry gave me a strange look, and I knew that somewhere I had messed up.

“Because you were going to help me get over my fears, and ask her by the end of the night, remember? I've wanted to ask her out forever, but she only sees me as a friend. I was hoping maybe tonight she could see me as something more.” I know, I was supposed to be Ginny, consoling him, and telling him about myself, but he completely caught me off guard. This wasn't because I didn't want to look at Harry that way, but because I had secretly been looking at him that way for a while already. It had started after I helped him recover from the loss of Sirius, and it had gone from friendship to something more. Now he was telling me, without realizing it, that he felt the same way about me. Cared for me as more than a friend, that is. And suddenly I couldn't wait for the dance.

“ Um…” I trailed off, unsure of what would be the best way to conquer his fears. I didn't want him to ask Ginny instead of me, even if I knew Ginny would gladly say yes for me. I wanted him to say it to my face, and I wanted to see it through my own eyes. But to do that he would have to wait a half hour to ask me, and I knew he would get impatient unless I explained why he had to wait without giving away my secret. “ Wouldn't it be easier just to wait till she gets to the dance, then ask her to dance, and ask her on a date there?” I asked hopefully, and I saw, to my relief, that he was considering it.

“Would that be easier than asking her to the dance?” he asked, still unsure. “It would mean a real date, and the dance is one thing but a date?”

“Of course it would be easier!” I argued, for the sake of my yearlong crush. I risked a glance at Ginny, in my body, having a spirited fight with Ron while watching Harry and I with interest. I could only pretend to glare at her, then smile, knowing that she had planned this so Harry would tell me how he felt without meaning to, and maybe if I wasn't caught so off-guard he would have a better chance of one date. I turned back to Harry and continued to try and bribe him into waiting to ask me out to Hogsmade until he was dancing with me.

“ But I thought you said you weren't sure if she was going. How do you know she'll even be there to ask to dance?” Harry asked, bewildered at his best friend and his best friend's sister's strange behavior.

“ Oh, believe me, she'll be there, she'll just be late, if you don't let her get ready, and so will I!”

“ Yeah, okay, one more question. How are you going to break it to Ron, about you going to the dance with Draco Malfloy. I mean, he's earned my respect and all, but Ron and Hermoine still have their doubts.” Harry said, still under the impression that I was Ginny. It was the second time that night Harry had seen Ginny Weasley look totally shocked at something she should have known, but I couldn't stop myself. My jaw dropped in wonder, but I closed my mouth just as quickly, running through all of the possible options in my head. My first thought was to walk over to Ginny, grab my ear, which was really her ear, and yell at her hard and long for not telling me, but that would have ruined any chance I had with Harry. Then I realized that Harry had said that Draco Malfloy, the Draco Malfloy, had earned his respect.

“ How did he earn your respect?” I asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of my voice. Harry, after a moment of surprise, smiled at the memory.

“ He lost both of his parents to Voldemort, and he took it well. Both of us are orphans now, and both of us hate the dark lord. Sure he acts like a Death Eater, but I think all of us should know better than to judge the whole book by its cover. I think Hermione might understand, but your brother will never accept him, and you know it!” Oh, right, I corrected myself. I was Ginny. But the real Ginny had been planning, no, still was planning, to go to the dance with Draco Malfloy, and the least I could do was help her out.

“ I'll talk to Ron, and I'll make sure Hermione's at the dance.” I said as I stood up from my spot by the fire. Both Ron and Hermione, or my body, had long since stopped their friendly bickering and gone up to their respective dormitories. Thinking of all I had just learned, I told Harry I'd see him at the dance, and walked as calmly as possible up the stairs and into the bedroom, flopping onto my four-poster bed, causing Ginny to send a curious glance my way. I didn't care. If I was to talk to Ron as Ginny tonight about his little sister going to the winter dance with Draco Malfloy, tonight was going to be a very long night.

“You owe me a lot of explanations, and we've got very little time.” I began. “Starting with you telling Harry but not me, about any relationship between you and Draco Malloy.” Ginny, only in my body, winced and visibly drew back from doing my makeup.

“ He wasn't supposed to say anything about that, only about asking you to the dance.” Ginny replied.

“ Do you have any idea how weird it is to hear your voice and see it coming from my body?” I asked abruptly, smiling. “You don't have to panic. Anyway. I'm not mad, just amused. You and Draco Malfloy.” I shook my head in amazement. “ Ron's going to love this.” Ginny nodded understandingly.

We finished each other's makeup, and my body ended up in slim silky dark blue Dress robes, with exposed just enough of my neck line to show the simple silver necklace with a ring on it. Ginny ended up in satin dress robes I had lent her money for. They were such a deep green that they made her long red hair all the more beautiful, and softened her dark brown eyes. She had her hair, or rather I had her hair, done up in an elegant bun, while she had mine down, curled, and flowing over my shoulder. How she got all of the frizz out of it, I will probably never know, for it came back the next day and was as bushy as ever, but on that night I looked beautiful, as did Ginny. So it was understandable when Harry's jaw dropped as I walked down the stairs as Ginny, followed shortly by my own body. We would have to switch any minute, and I knew I'd have a splitting headache, as I had when we had first switched, but I was willing to risk it to thank Ginny. Ron had agreed to wait to escort me, or Ginny down to the Great Hall so I could find my mystery date.

“Ron, this is my date, Draco Malfloy. Draco, this is my brother, Ron.” I said, feeling the headache and knowing that the change back was coming. Ron's anger seemed beyond words. Then, Draco Malfloy actually did something he'd probably only do for Ginny. He apologized to both Ron and Hermione, or myself. That was just before I blacked out.

“Well, I thought she'd at least take it better than that.” Harry's voice said, somewhere in the back of my mind. I felt like my eyes were glued shut, but for the first time in a while I felt well rested. Then my head felt like it spit open.

“I can't believe she slept that long! Was it really that shocking that I came to apologize?” Draco Malfloy's voice echoed through my thoughts. Draco Malfloy? What was he doing here? Then, my memory returned, and my head and upper body sprung up from the depths of the pillows stacked for me at the hospital wing.

“ I slept through the night? Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it'd have these effects! How's Ginny?” I asked in concern. Harry was the first to recover from his shock enough to reply.

“ Ginny' fine, other than the fact she's out cold. But you conked your head pretty hard on the stone floor before I could catch you.” Harry smiled at me, putting his arm behind me to support me as Madam Pomfery force-fed me chocolate. Chewing while thinking, I brought back the memories from last night, and the accomplishment I had managed. Suddenly, I heard Ginny stir. She too sat up, and Madam Pomfery stuffed her with chocolate as well asking what hurt and what had happened, and if this was the result of her drinking something illegal, which greatly annoyed me, because she should know that I would never do anything illegal, and neither would Ginny.

It took quite a bit of explaining ourselves, and a detention to have Professor McGonagall understand exactly what Ginny and I had done. But in the end she did give Gryffindor fifty points, for the discovery of a new potion. It took even more convincing for Madam Pomfery to allow Ginny and I to leave, and finding Harry before school started… that seemed impossible. According to Ron, he wasn't mad, just highly embarrassed, and didn't really want to talk about it. So it wasn't until midnight on Christmas night, after opening presents and eating the famed Hogwarts Christmas dinner that I found Harry, sitting there in the room of requirement. It was our place, it was where I had found him the day I had helped him overcome his grief of Sirius, and I knew it was where we'd overcome this…if he'd open the door and let me in!

“Harry, open the door!”

“ Hermione, can't you leave me alone for one hour?” Harry moaned in response, while opening the door. I don't think I need to point out how immature it was of him to lock me out. After all, I was only trying to help.

“How much did you hear last night?” Harry asked, as soon as I walked into the room and sat on the sofa in the corner. The room resembled a bedroom, and I could bet that if I hadn't come to talk to Harry now, he would've spent the night here. It was a good thing I'd come, instead of waiting for him in the common room, then. Blushing, I carefully considered the answer to his question.

“ Um, well, I was Ginny through that little talk, and at the beginning of the dance…. But I was myself before we put up the decorations, the potion only lasts for an hour.” Harry was blushing profusely, and I knew I'd given the answer he hadn't wanted to hear.

“So you suggested that I ask you to dance, instead of asking you to the dance, because you didn't want me to ask Ginny to the dance as you?” Harry asked, confusion written clearly on his features.

“ Ginny knew you were nervous, and you'd never be able to tell me how you felt, and apparently she was sworn to secrecy, so she couldn't tell me for you.” I said, reciting exactly what Ginny had told the table at dinner. The diner he'd missed, that is, he'd been sulking in this room. “ So she figured she'd agree with me and try the potion, then not tell you or Ron. That way, you'd tell me how you felt without knowing it, and I'd get the chance to either turn you down or agree to go out with you, only by then I'd be myself instead of her.”

“So why did you suggest I wait till the dance, when we were dancing, instead of asking you to the dance?” Harry asked. I sighed.

“Because I didn't want you to ask Ginny, thinking she was me. I've wanted you to ask me the my face, not to Ginny's.” I mumbled blushing. “Ginny played matchmaker, not knowing we'd pass out.”

“ We never got our dance.” Harry said, suddenly romantic. I could only smile and agree.

“No, we didn't, but we need music.” I said, but before the sentence was finished music played across the room. I was so captivated with the tune, I never noticed Ginny smile from the cracked open door, and I wouldn't know she was there for some years to come. And at that moment, as Harry asked me out, I'm not sure I would've really cared about her watching, or about anything else for that matter. Because as we danced in the room of requirement, and under the mistletoe, I decided this was the best Christmas ever.

A.N.- I don't take credit for everything in the disclaimer, but this poem is mine, and I wrote it! If you do review, please tell me how you like it. If anyone thinks it's good, I might enter it in a contest.

Christmas cookies.

Once upon a winter's night,

The weekend before last

I quietly turned on the light.

Paged through my family's past.

There are people I don't remember,

People I don't know.

My family sledding on a cold December,

Us playing in the snow.

Each picture has a story.

A history of it's own.

Some bring back a memory,

But some I leave alone.

And then I finally see.

The ones I'd put aside.

Pictures of a child, smiling back at me.

Ones I wished my mom would hide.

Something deep inside me ached,

As I gazed upon this child,

Wondering as her cookies baked.

Just why this girl had smiled?

For it was just another winter,

The same as all the other years,

What made that Christmas better?

Then I smiled through my tears.

Without a thought, I ate the cookie

My mom baked earlier that day.

Then staring at the Christmas tree,

A new thought came my way.

I looked back at my smiling face.

Yes, I was the child!

And slowly life fell into place.

Remembering why I smiled.